Out of Luck
by FlyForever
Summary: Max is always out of luck. When she loves people they leave her. In addition, Max can never stay away from danger, and when she joins the Avengers she has to hide she is a little closer to the enemy than what any of them would find comfortable.
1. Prolouge

**Okay, to start, I have no clue what I am getting myself into. I gave up on my two other fics because one was funny, but not going anywhere, and I did not like how the other one was written. If you do not like Loki that is perfectly fine, because he probably won't be as crazy as he was in the Avengers. On we go.**

**This story is somewhat after Nevermore, except in this one Fang never came back, Dylan is here, Total is, Maya is dead and Angel is still currently missing. This is lightly pre-Avengers and mostly during Avengers.**

**I did not remember specific dates in the movie so if I'm wrong about the months, don't kill me.**

**Disclaimer: I absolutely, positively do not own the rights to any movie produced or a published book.**

Lost Between Miserable and Wary

Max's POV, sort of:

It was cold. Max was trying to make sure that this was the only thought she had as she held the notebook of loose papers with shaky hands. Max kept repeating the words in her head, _its cold, it is November and it is cold, it is November, I'm in the middle of New York City, and it is cold. _Max started to make a game out of this, each time referring to the temperature became more and more specific until she came to the conclusion that, _it is November, I'm in the middle of New York City, there is snow dusting the ground, icicles are hanging from roofs, kids are bundled in thick coats, and it is cold. I hate the cold, _was Max's final thought.

No matter how impressive Max's efforts in distracting her own self were, she could not forget her mission. This mission was not like her normal ones though, she was not out to steal secret files from the School, she was not on a mission for blood, hell, Max wasn't even on a simple mission to analyze her whereabouts for possible dangers. She was on a mission to leave behind her broken heart. You see, Max was twenty-eight years old now. She hasn't seen her mother or Ella in thirteen years. Angel, to her knowledge, has been dead for thirteen years. Fang? It has been thirteen years since he effectively tore out her heart. Sure, Fang mangled it pretty bad when he left with only a letter to take his place, but when she had seen that her clone had replaced her, that hurt more than Max could ever imagine words to be capable of describing.

You probably still have no clue about what a notebook full of scattered papers could possibly have to do with Max's broke heart, right? Well, these papers contained memories. Inside this notebook lies the very same letter Fang left her when he told her that they shouldn't be together, only now it was tearstained, one edge was ripped off, and it looked to have come from an unpreserved ancient text, having been kept tightly in her pocket on bad days for far too many battles. She used to look at it to remind herself that he might still love her, he may be waiting for her at the cliff seven years from now, but time had a tendency of making the idea appear less and less likely.

Another paper contained her mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Although it seemed senseless to destroy, it reminded Max of her mother far too much to continue to look at, remembering that since her mom left when Jeb did, there is that slight chance that her mother was a traitor it was impossibly painful to think of. Her mom had given her a few more papers all the same slightly before leaving; they were medical files that Dr. Martinez had made at her house. One for the time she had treated Max's bullet wound and another from when she had removed the chip that was found in Max's arm. The second one had a small note on it that said, "Doesn't take well with Valium, slightly alters personality." The last part was written in as a joke, but Max had never found it quite funny, Fang on the other hand laughed at her expense when he saw it.

In memory of Ella? Letters that Max did not know existed until four years ago. When Max came across them she had been going through a box of Ella's old things, to organize and preserve in case her half-sister came back. Max had no clue they existed and each was addressed to, "somewhere in the sky". She read all the letters until two o'clock the next morning. She felt as if she knew a side of her sister that previously didn't exist. She loved Ella, but she never realized just how deep her sister was. Reading through the letters had made Max cry, laugh, smile, and then cry all over again. She loved these letters, but knowing Ella wasn't coming back tore at her heart and reading them made it no better.

What about Angel? It was as if her baby never existed. Max did not have an item left to Angel's name. The little girl she had raised was dead and there was nothing of hers to try and let go of except the shoe they found in the city she had died, which Gazzy kept with him wherever they moved to and from. Max felt as if her heart would rip in two thinking of her baby, killed in an explosion.

Of course, Max was not thinking about this at the moment, she was thinking about how much she hated the damned cold weather. The fact she was only wearing a t-shirt, windbreaker, skinny jeans, and her classic combat boots was not helping. Max had reached her destination three minutes ago; she was finally at the large pond near the edge of New York City. Max sat down in the grass, she had very unceremoniously plopped to the ground and then sprawled out her limbs in every direction they could go. _Could I do it? _Max thought to herself, the notebook clutched tightly in one hand. The young women thought for three minutes before dragging her body off the ground and to the edge of the lake. She winded her arm back as if to throw the memories into the pond and the arm stayed there for three minutes before she brought it down, for the third time this week, with tears in her eyes. _I can't do this, _she thought, _this is all I have left of them._

Do not interpret this wrong. Max is not weak. She could take down thirty Erasers in five minutes flat and she has infiltrated more secret facilities than you could count with the two-hundred and six bones of your adult body, all of which she could break. Even the strongest have their breakdowns though, and the past two months have been the first for Max since finding Ella's letters. The man who silently came, or was simply unnoticed, had no way of knowing this though.

"Pathetic Midgardians."

Now the lovely Max, who many know for lacking social tact, turned around-not before wiping the tears out of her eyes-and snarled out her response to the man.

"I don't know what you said, but that is just rich. Insulting someone when you look like you just came from some _glorified _Renaissance fair."

Max took in the appearance of the man a bit closer, trying to come up with something to comment on since she knew nothing of him; she was disappointed to come to the conclusion that he could be deemed as handsome. That was about Max's equivalent of thinking he looked like a model. He had pale skin (even more so than Iggy's), black hair, and high cheekbones. Max took all this in using three seconds before realizing he had her notebook (she must have dropped it) in his hands, which he was gesturing with as if to give to her. Max stared at it dumbly before realizing he was trying to get her to take it.

"Thank-you," Max mumbled, not being the type who enjoyed using manners.

The man smiled at this, noticing her discomfort. She grabbed the notebook quickly. Before he even had the chance to say something else to her she was walking away, long powerful strides creating distance quickly. Max was pretty far away from him before she shouted out, without looking back.

"Seriously, try leaving the helmet at home next time you go out in public."

Max did not have the slightest clue about how lucky she was not to get killed with her back turned, she was very lucky indeed that Loki was deep in thought, trying to decipher how the crying girl could change personalities before he had the chance to blink.

**I don't know if I want to leave this as a one-shot or turn it into a full out LokixMax story now, what do you all think? I was originally planning to do a story, but I like this as it is too.**


	2. Chapter 1

**In case you all don't notice by the time you are done reading this chapter, for the time being there will be major time skips focusing on moments in which Max runs into Loki. When we get to the parts during the Avengers it will not jump forward like it is now. **

**Also, in case none of you noticed the lovely seven day gap, I would like to inform you from now on I plan on trying to update every Sunday. If you do not see an update on Sunday do not expect one until next Sunday, or Monday at three a.m. the next morning. In my mind that is still technically Sunday. My brain is not fully functioning. I was sort of dropped on my head as a baby, as in I fell into a corner of a brick fireplace and now there is a decent sized scar of the stitches I had to get when I was three. Kind of like Harry Potter, a lovely scar on the forehead that will never go away, I love it. Anyway… before I get any more off topic let us head to the story.**

**One last thing, I'm going to wait a while before telling you why Loki is on Midgard. It is a reasonable… reason, just something that should also be explained. Maybe the next chapter. Oh, and thank-you to all my fabulous reviewers.**

**Disclaimer, I own nothing. If I did Loki would not have stabbed Thor in Avengers, instead he would go with his brother back to Asgard. Also, in Maximum Ride, Dylan would not exist, Fang would have never left, and the flock would have lived happily ever after with Max's mom and chocolate chip cookies. Plus there would be a lot more Faxness. Gosh, normal disclaimers don't rant this much. **

The Worst Time of the Year

**Max's POV (actually Max in first person)**

Normal people, who, let us just assume, don't have bird DNA and do not have to constantly worry over five other people during the hustle and bustle of Christmas may not have to deal with all the stress that comes with such a life. As I have determined over my many years of life, I am not normal, so by no means could my holidays be so contrasting to myself.

Two weeks before Christmas and everything _was_ going normal. It was just me and my merry band of mutants spreading chaos throughout our tiny home in New York. Nudge made it her mission to find every Christmas decoration that sparkled and then throw it somewhere in the yard or in our house. In summary, it looked like a fairy had thrown up glitter everywhere. Gazzy had made it his mission to take every Christmas decoration in our yard and then turn it into a bomb. Iggy barely spent a minute away from the stove and he was constantly throwing me out of the kitchen despite my constant insistence that I had the ability to not burn food if I was, let's say, cutting it, mixing it, or dicing it. He didn't believe. Total was loitering around the house like any time of the year, except he wore a red and green sweater. Dylan was trying to convince me that during the most magical time of the year I should give a relationship with him a chance, not in a million years.

This, of course, was normal because it was the type of behavior that I can expect from my flock. The week right before Christmas was what really got me.

It was a Sunday and Nudge had just walked in the front door which led to the living room I was sitting in.

"Max, you will never believe what I just did!" she said while taking off her quilted scarf.

"If you don't think I will like it, be smart and keep your mouth shut."

Nudge opened and closed her mouth a few times, it was quite funny. A very rare moment indeed to find Nudge at a loss for words. Gazzy, who had been sitting on the sofa next to me, seemed to be on the same wavelength.

"Wow! Nudge can't talk! Someone grab a camera, this is a moment to be put in history books!"

Nudge glared at him and the words that seemed to be stuck in her mouth spilled out.

"I signed you and me up to go Christmas caroling Max! Ohh, won't it be so fun? We get to meet up in Central Park with a group of people that go to my church down the street. They are bringing friends and family and there is no person I would rather spend my Christmas Eve with than you, Max, except maybe our cute neighbor boy. Have you seen him? He has the most gorgeous hair I have ever seen. He moved in last week. Ohh, but anyways, Max it is going to be so much fun! We get to sing and spread holiday cheer for the entire day and then afterwards we can go and get hot chocolate! Do you think we could go on a quick fly too? I have been dying to spread my wings for weeks!"

Now, on normal occasions, I would have long ago slapped my hand over Nudge's mouth and then I would tell her to get to the point. At the time I was so shocked that my mouth was wide open and Gazzy was sitting next to me laughing his but off to the point where he could not do so himself. She wanted me to sing. Maximum Ride, destroyer of Itex, was being asked to go and sing cheery little Christmas carols to spread happiness simply out of the warmness of my heart. No.

"No."

Nudge frowned at me.

"Why not? It will be so much fun. You _will_ have fun, I promise. You can meet all my friends fr-"

I cut Nudge off with my hand which she proceeded to lick like an immature fourteen year old causing me to move it.

"I will not sing, besides, why don't you ask another flock member?"

"Who should I ask?" Nudge shouted at me, "I would ask Angel, but in case you haven't noticed, she isn't here!"

Nudge proceeded to run up the stairs and five seconds later I heard a door slam shut. My throat was feeling uncharacteristically tight.

"That wasn't cool," Gazzy said in reply to what Nudge had said and he proceeded to walk up the stairs and leave me by myself.

"No, it wasn't," I mumbled to myself before walking up the stairs to tell Nudge I would go caroling with her on Saturday.

When Saturday finally came around Nudge was practically bouncing off the walls. She was one more coffee away from _actually _bouncing off the walls.

"Can you believe that I got our new neighbor to come with us? He has only been here a week and I already have him becoming part of the community," Nudge looked fairly proud of herself as she said this, my little social butterfly, always dragging new people to places they don't want to be. I could hardly imagine people doing this for fun. "Did you know that he lives somewhere else to? Can you imagine having two homes! That would be so much fun! You could make a mess in one house and then just go off to the next one instead of cleaning it up!" It is nice to understand how that brain of Nudge's works. "Do you think we could get another house, Max?" I contemplated the idea; we could always just leave when Dylan and Total were being more annoying than their normal selves. "It could be a castle! I want to live in a castle someday. Maybe if we ever find out who my parents are it will turn out I'm a lost princess. Wouldn't that be so cool? Do you think we could just buy a castle, Max?"

I groaned before saying, "Nudge, can we just go get our neighbor and drive to Central Park already?"

Nudge was about to agree until she saw what I was wearing.

"You can't go out in _that,_" she gasped, "You will freeze to death."

"Being a bit over dramatic, aren't we?"

Nudge, ignoring me, dragged me up to her room before grabbing a grey sweater and a thick pair of dressy pants.

"Why make me change pants?"

"Those are hideous," she said simply, referring to my favorite pair of jeans. With that she left the room.

I quickly got changed into her clothes, sometimes arguing with Nudge was senseless, and they were a bit tight on me. When I walked down the stairs she quickly threw me a red knitted hat and matching gloves, a fashionable grey coat that went to my knees, and boots that almost reached the bottom of the coat.

The ending result was awful. I looked as put together as Nudge was. If it was her mission to make me seem as much unlike myself as possible today she definitely succeeded and it was still before noon. Besides that, she was treating me like a child, forcing me into warm clothing when she is three years younger than me.

"After you," Nudge said in ridiculously cheesy sounding voice.

"Why thank-you," I responded in a matching tone.

Nudge linked her arm under mine and started to skip across our yard and into our neighbor's with me walking awkwardly at her side. When we got to the door Nudge gave it two taps with a closed fist and we waited barely five seconds before the door opened. I almost gasped when I saw who opened the door, not expecting them to be familiar at all, but being me I managed to play it off with a completely convincing cough.

**I think about three to five more chapters until Max is placed into the beginning of the Avengers movie. **

**I will dedicate the next chapter to the first person who guesses who the neighbor is correctly, it is very obvious. Hope that everyone enjoyed and please leave a review whether it be constructive criticism, a nice comment, or you simply want to share what your favorite sandwich is with me.**


	3. Chapter 2

**We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful… Oops hehe, you didn't hear that…**

**Disclaimer: I do not on the Avengers or Maximum Ride, I think. I have personal identity issues. Ohh…wait… my imaginary friend told me I am not an actually author or director. Everything is good now. I may need a therapist though.**

***Warning: this chapter contains changes in POV's***

**This chapter is dedicated to the reviewer stardust light, nice job guessing and everyone else who got it right, you all did great too.  
**

**Nudge Knows How to Scheme**

**Max POV:**

After coughing out the surprise of seeing the familiar face I realized that I still did not know the guy's name. So after receiving a funny sideways glance from Nudge I reluctantly stuck out my hand towards the man.

"Max."

I was extremely surprised when, instead of shaking my hand, he grabbed it and proceeded to bend down and press his lips to it. Nudge, ever enjoying my current obvious discomfort, started to giggle. My cheeks could have passed for a flat tomato at the moment. When he straightened back up he offered his name.

"Loki."

Instead of staying in the awkward atmosphere I made a beeline towards my car and allowed Nudge and Loki to trail behind me. When I was inside of the vehicle I started the engine and put the heater on as high as it would go, allowing my vents to throw cold air at me until the engine warmed up. Nudge, being the polite bird woman she is, allowed Loki to sit up front with me. I shot her a glare as she slid into the back seat giving me a sly grin. Something was certainly going on right now and I could already tell that I am not going to like it.

The entire car ride I felt tense. I may not be as suspicious with strangers as I used to, but I sure do not like them either. The entire time I listened to Loki trying to start conversation with me and Nudge was being oddly quiet. The best I offered towards the man sitting next to me was sharp glares. I can hardly drive inside my lane as it is and I was not going to allow small talk to get us in an accident.

**Loki POV:**

Why is this girl sitting next to me being so infuriating! I am a god and I will not allow some mortal to be so uncooperative! From what I know, which is more than this mortal's tiny mind can comprehend, humans are submissive. So why can she not do as I please and have a civilized conversation?

When I gave up on trying to talk to her I began to wonder why I came here. Ohh wait, it was that girl sitting behind us, the only thing I could do to get her out of my house after I invited her in was to agree to going to this silly event with her. She could drive a god to suicide by simply talking their ears off.

It is not as if I could just dispose of her either. I have to remain low key **(get it?, sorry)** if I want to get the information I need about Earth. Currently, I'm spying on the agency that has the Tesseract. While I could simply go on a full scale rampage to get what I want immediately, the Chitauri think that I should know more information before an attack.

In my free time I want to find out more about the mortals of Earth. When everything goes my way and I finally rule them I would like to know how they behave. Their culture is surprisingly interesting and it changes so quickly, just look at the last hundred years (that is less time than my early childhood). These people are adapting to their world at a fast pace and the books on Midgard that I have read in my childhood do nothing for my knowledge of mortal's culture.

**Max POV: **

When we got to the park I think Nudge was holding in squeals of delight. As soon as I shut my car door she had grabbed my hand and then she started running towards a crowd of people surrounding a tall oak tree. I almost tripped into the small layer of snow; I could barely walk with the heels on these stupid boots Nudge made me wear.

It appeared we had arrived exactly on time as I heard the person I assumed to be leading the event talk.

"Alright everyone, I am so glad you made it here today!" I rolled my eyes at the lady's cheery voice and when I looked to the side Loki was seen smirking towards me. I'm glad to be a source of entertainment.

"Just like every year we will be separating into ten groups to cover more area, there are seventy-three people here today so each group should have seven people and three groups will have eight. I have a list over here with your groups, based on your personal requests. Also, there are folders with sheet music on the picnic table to the left of me, each group will need four."

When she was done talking I looked around myself. Are there really that many people here? I shrugged it off quickly, it doesn't matter.

After standing still for five minutes, the crowd of people preventing us from moving, Nudge led me and our guest outside of the crowd. She immediately had us standing with five other people. After some long introductions we walked towards the section of the park we were supposed to be at. This was going to be a long day.

A man in our group spoke up once he had us standing in a straight line.

"Grab the hand of the person next to you."

I think I actually groaned out loud before grabbing Nudge's hand, and reluctantly Loki's too.

Four hours later and we were finishing up; it did not go as smoothly as it was supposed to. Loki kept stumbling over simple Christmas carols that even I knew. I pathetically tried to help him by singing a little ahead of the beat, causing the whole train wreck to become even worse. It was only two hours into caroling, we had gone through all the songs about twice, and he was starting to sound better than anyone else in the group. I found this to be completely unfair.

I felt miserable on top of everything else. My fingers felt numb through my gloves and my nose probably had icicles hanging from it.

After twenty minutes of Nudge saying farewell to all of her friends we started to walk towards a café.

I opened my mouth; in a very un-Max like way I was trying to start a conversation.

"Well, that was," I tried to search for the right word for a few moments, "okay."

Nudge shined a bright smile at me and Loki grinned.

"I knew you would like it Max! You should start listening to me more often. Remember the one time when you didn't believe me when I told you a stray kitten was eating our food when we were taking a rest somewhere in Kentucky? You thought I was eating the food! I may love food, but I would never come up with such a lie. Do you remember what the kitten looked like? It was all white and fluffy, we should have kept it. Max, do you think I could get a kitten for Christmas?"

I sighed, "Maybe," Nudge beamed up at me.

Fortunately, the monologue Nudge had took up the entire time of our walk to the café. Loki held open the door for us and the warmth of the room caused my face to flush. When we had ordered and all had sat down Nudge looked at her phone, looked at us, and then started standing up.

"I have to go! I'm sorry Max, but it's a work emergency!"

She flashed _my _keys at us and then ran out the door, not before throwing a wink back at me. I swear that girl is bird meat when I get my hands on her. I was in too much of a shock to chase after her.

"Well this is just great! I have raised a psychopath with a death wish!"

"Raised?" The man across from me questioned. I paled, realizing what I said.

"It's nothing." I replied shortly.

"It doesn't seem like nothing, that woman could be no more than five years younger than you."

I came to the quick conclusion that this conversation was not going to be dropped as easily as I wanted it to. Plus, this guy is my neighbor and with Nudge's like of him I will not be able to avoid him for, let's just say, forever. I was going to have to stretch the truth a bit.

"Well, Nudge and I were orphans." What a lovely way to start off Max, now where should I go with this. I drew in a sharp breath before I started bs'ing my way out of this. "We were taken in as babies by an orphanage that did not treat us properly. This orphanage was not run by the government and the activities that took place inside it were kept secret. The workers were all essentially evil, except for one. He broke us out of that place when I was eleven."

"He gave us-which included of me, Nudge, and three others," I left out Fang, "Well, he gave us a home, education, safety, he was what made us a family. A screwed up family, but a family all the same. One day he just disappeared and then it became my job to take care of all of them. I loved them like they were my children and I still do to this day."

He looked at me sympathetically and it appeared he was deep in thought. I wanted to pat myself on the back; my impressive on the spot thinking hasn't become worse with years of lack in practicing.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't want apologies. Nothing you did made my life the way it was. If anything I want the apologies from the people who made me what I am today." Right before I kill them, I added as an afterthought.

"I understand. If it makes you feel better life has not blessed me either."

I raised a single eyebrow at him.

"Either you tell me what happened or I pretend you did not talk."

I was taken aback when he threw a quick glare at me. All I could think was, holy crap, that look is terrifying. I made a vow in that moment to not use my death glare on anyone for a month…no, a week, maybe.

"That is none of your business."

"Neither was what I told you, but I'm not complaining."

"You gave into telling your story willingly."

I raised an eyebrow at him again.

"If your curious mind cannot be satisfied any other way I will share though. I was raised by a royal family." I about scoffed at him. "My older brother was everything my father wanted. He was strong, handsome, and he did everything right in my father's eyes. Whatever I did paled in the glory of my brother's most remedial accomplishments."

"No matter what I did, I could not earn the approval of my father. When I grew older I found out why. I was the blood of our enemy, he was not my father at all, he had taken me as a baby. He thought I could bring peace between our nations, father must of been so disappointed when he found out I could not even do that. A couple of years ago I made a terrible mistake in my family's eyes and my brother sent me away from our home, never to return."

Well, if all the screw ups would care to move to my neighborhood why don't we make the party of mistakes more complete? I interrupted my own bitter thoughts by slowly reaching my hand out to put over his. I was not going to make the same mistake he did by saying sorry.

"The best people in the world were made through hardships."

I felt awkward as the cheesy words flew out of my mouth. He laughed without humor in response.

"I am not a good person."

Not knowing what to say I stood up from the table, no money in my pocket to leave a tip since my wallet was in the car. Loki stood with me and we walked out the doors together. I felt my hand wrapped around something and realized I still had my hand around his. I shrugged it off, we were in New York City and we might as well make sure not to lose each other.

"I have no money for a taxi, my wallet was in the car Nudge took, so I guess we have a long walk ahead of us."

I groaned at my own words, realizing I couldn't just flip out my wings and leave him here. That would be suspicious. I guess we have a five hour walk ahead of us. After looking at my watch I determined we would be home by midnight. That is fantastic, right at the start of Christmas.

We managed to have an interesting conversation. It isn't like we were going to walk in silence for _that_ long. I told him all about the flock, leaving out the fact we called ourselves "The Flock". He shared with me what it was like to grow up in a royal family. He, apparently, was quite the prankster as a kid. I could already tell I needed to keep him away from Iggy. There is no telling what their minds would come up with if used together.

The whole time I tried to ignore the fact I was still holding onto his hand. It would be too easy to lose him if I let go. When we were within three miles of our house and it was a safe distance away from the city I realized our fingers had managed to entwine themselves and separating them might not go as unnoticed as I wished. To delay the awkward moment sure to come I didn't move my hand.

Our conversation was starting to get stranger as tiredness began to take its toll on me. I asked him if he could be any animal in the world, what would he be. He seemed to be at a loss for words. In my idiotic state I answered my own question.

"I would be a bird. The freedom of being able to fly anywhere you wanted at the slightest of whims would be amazing. It would have certainly come in handy tonight."

I was smiling like an idiot after my confession and then I started using that inactive brain of mine. I realized I was an idiot. Arriving at my house could not have come at a better time. He walked by my side up to my door before leaning down and kissing the hand which was still in his.

"It was a pleasure to meet you Max."

I did not know what to say at the moment. I simply removed my hand from his, opened the door to my home, and as I let warmth rush around my body I was never more glad that we usually left the door unlocked (the flock and I figured that if anything really wanted to come in, it would). It took less than a second for me to realize Nudge was wide awake and she was sitting with her legs crossed on the sofa. What was she doing awake at midnight?

"How was your date, Max?"

My mouth opened and about hit the floor. She was definitely not getting a kitten.

**So I hope you like it and I hope nothing is moving to terribly fast. We don't exactly want to move at snail's pace either.**

**How much of this do you think Nudge had planned out? She can be a devious little bird kid. I'm glad to have finished at exactly 11:08 tonight. **

**How many more chapters of Loki/Max do you want before the Avengers comes into play? I just want a few suggestions.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Guess what day it is today! It's Sunday, my new favorite day of the week because I love creative writing.**

**Anyways, sometime next month I'm starting a new crossover and I cannot wait! It is going to be Harry Potter/Maximum Ride and in case any of you are interested in it I will post when my first update will come out. I would give you all the summary now, but it might still change a bit. I really badly want to start tonight, but I have to read all of the books first. I have only watched all the movies and read the first book; my library never seems to have the second one. Anyway, in case you all cannot tell by my rambling, long story short, I'm excited.**

**I would like to dedicate this chapter to ****Luna in Bloodland**** for reviewing on each chapter; your reviews do mean a lot.**

**Also, thank-you to all my reviewers. You all help me push through my writing even when I want to just quit, although it is early for that, it happens.**

**On to the chapter-Disclaimer- I do not own Maximum Ride or the Avengers.**

**The Real Date**

**Max POV:**

I have come to one conclusion about holidays. I hate them. Let me just say that it has nothing to do with the infuriating kitten sitting on my lap, or maybe it has everything to do with it. All it took was a well aimed pair of Bambi eyes and I was mush, Nudge's late Christmas gift does not seem to realize that _it _is supposed to bug Nudge, not me.

In addition to the six month old kitten that I am trying to ignore while reading my book, it is February the fourteenth. The mushiest day of the year happens to fall on this date and I am simply trying to ignore that fact by treating today like any other that I receive off of work. How do I ignore such a pink and grossly girly holiday you might ask? I do that by reading a kickass book. That is the only adjective I can think of describing it with.

Obviously it is fiction. Most non-fiction books put me to sleep with their overuse of facts. This book is about a wife that has her husband kidnapped by hostiles while he is on duty in Iraq. When the government decides it does not want to make deals with terrorists she has to take matters into her own hands. She left behind her home and job to go look for him. Currently the woman is in a desert running out of food and water. She just saw an animal with its head dipped into a ravine. It's her chance. She takes out a knife and slowly approaches the gazelle. One hundred and eighty pounds of muscle verses one hundred and twenty of flesh. The woman's hands are shaking slightly with fear as she thought about the likelihood of the animal turning around and attacking her. If it runs away this could be her last chance to find food before… I withheld a shriek of rage. Wait, I did not, I tried to though.

Nudge's stupid kitten had managed to nudge the book hard enough out of my hands that it dropped to the floor, losing my page. The white fur ball proceeded to rub its head against my hand.

"Would you care to keep quiet down there, I need silence to concentrate!"

I ran up the stairs towards Gazzy's voice, not liking the thoughts floating through my head. When Gazzy is concentrating on something you can only expect disasters to come soon after. Whether it be a good disaster, like taking down fifty Erasers with a bomb, or a bad disaster, like, say, blowing up our entire house.

When I threw open the door to his room I saw Gazzy's head bent over an object which had an array of colored wires sprouting from an unidentifiable object. There was also a head of black hair, watching from next to the younger boy with intent curiosity. Ohh great, just what we need, Loki learning how to make bombs.

"And then you take this green wire and bring it over the blue to connect with…"

"Gazzy!" said boy proceeded to hide the monstrous item behind his back, as if I had not seen it.

"It's a lovely day Max. Your hair looks nice, has Nudge made you her Barbie today? You don't look so happy; did Iggy tell you that you are being kicked out of the house for dinner?"

My anger then directed to a new source, Iggy. Forgetting the bomb, for the present moment, I went to find the flock's personal chef who was currently making dinner. He didn't even see me coming.

"Iggy, would you care to explain to me as to why Gazzy said I was going to be kicked out of my own house tonight?"

"It's Valentine's Day." He said it matter of factly, as if it explained everything. One more reason to hate holidays.

"And," I questioned, not having a clue what that had to do with dinner. Iggy sighed.

"And, the rest of the flock has dates, not to be rude, but we already decided that we don't want an awkward seventh wheel to crash our night."

I started to do math in my head before coming to a conclusion.

"What if I had Dylan be my date?" I said, putting air quotes around the word date.

"He has one; she's a really picky French girl. She is making him take her to a four star restaurant. I don't get it though; I cook much better than those wannabe chefs."

Ignoring the arrogance in Iggy's last sentence, I sighed and used two fingers to pinch the bridge of my nose.

"Can I eat dinner in my room instead?"

"No, Nudge says you are not allowed in the house without a date."

"Why?"

"She does not want to deal with any of your antics. Frankly, I don't either."

I glared (albeit, it was quite lost on him) while my brain thought of a way to eat dinner at home. Okay, maybe it was just me being sensitive. If I had to deal with an unwelcomed voice in my head for ten years then they can deal with an unwelcome Max for one night.

"What if I can find someone to come with me, a date?" Iggy snorted, it sounded like he found the idea impossible.

"If you could find a date in two years I would eat your cooking. If you find a date in two hours, I guess you can join us."

I shot another pointless glare at Iggy before going to find Nudge. She knows how to deal with guy stuff. I knocked twice on her door before hearing a, "Come in!"

"Hey Nudge." She smiled at me.

"Hi Max." I couldn't be more grateful that she did not start rambling before I got my question out.

"Can you find me a guy to go to dinner with, quick?" I cringed, already prepared for the Nudge Channel to start blaring at full force.

"You should just go with Loki."

I was at first shocked by her lack of wordiness. After getting over the shock, I don't know what made the idea get to me so much, but I felt a blush color my face. I replaced it with a scoff seconds after.

"I meant an actual date Nudge."

To save you the pain of the next twenty minutes, I'm going to do a time skip. Nudge went through half the men in her contacts, describing each of their personalities in great detail before I became completely exasperated.

"Fine, I'll just go with Loki!"

Then I went off to my last victim, wait let us not make such predictions. Next thing you know I will be charging after Total. Thinking of all that, Maximum "Charging-Off" Ride, the nickname buzzed in my head. It seems so fitting for today.

**Loki's POV:**

After waking up this morning I immediately got ready to go see the neighbor, Gazzy. He was going to show me how to make a bomb today, he said that while they can be dangerous he normally only makes paint bombs. At least if those explode there is not any real damage, he had explained. I simply cannot wait to learn more about this trade. He is more than eager enough to share his knowledge.

When I was welcomed into the neighbor's house and led up to his room he started whispering.

"We don't want Max to know what we are doing. So if you could keep it down that would be great."

Gazzy made sure that he went at a pace where he could explain everything properly. I felt genuinely confused for once in my life. There were so many different colored wires and it was hard to keep track of where each one went. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when we heard a shriek of rage. Gazzy, without looking up from what he was doing, yelled down the stairs.

"Would you care to keep quiet down there, I need silence to concentrate!"

I continued to try and listen to what he was doing, trying not to give away that I could hear the footsteps coming towards us. Mortals cannot necessarily hear that well from what I have learned.

"And then you take this blue wire and bring it over the red to connect with…"

"Gazzy!" We heard Max yell, and Gazzy proceeded to grab the contraption and hide it behind his back. It reminded me of how dumb mortals are.

"It's a lovely day Max. Your hair looks nice, has Nudge made you her Barbie today? You don't look so happy; did Iggy tell you that you are being kicked out of the house for dinner?"

I had a bit to add in my head to Gazzy's monologue. It was not just her hair that looked nice; she was beautiful in general. Of course, this is something I kept to myself. Even if I wanted to share this information with her I could not, Max fled out the door in mere seconds.

Gazzy went back to explaining his bomb, a devious smile on his face. Maybe this mortal was less dull than I gave him credit for. Clearly we were near done; almost all the wires were connected to something. I was soon leaving the room. I did not quite expect to see Max upstairs so quickly, going through Nudge's door.

Knowing that what I was doing was wrong I stared to eavesdrop on their conversation. There was an exchange of short pleasantries and then I heard Max's voice.

"Can you find me a guy to go to dinner with, quick?"

I felt shocked. I did not think Max was capable of talking about relationships in the slightest form. I had seen Nudge bring it up to her once, Max simply stood up and left without any answers. It was quite rude I must say.

"You should just go with Loki."

My shock tripled. There was a stagnant pause.

"I meant an actual date Nudge."

I scoffed. Talking like that, about a god? As if I would have wanted to go on a date with her. She is moody, annoying, rude, sarcastic, witty, intelligent, unique… wait, those last few are not insults, why is my mind not agreeing with me? When I made it to my house I let out a sigh. It feels particularly refreshing to be alone at this moment.

**Max's POV:**

I knocked twice on Loki's door and it took him a while for an answer, longer than normal. When he saw me his expression soured. What did I do?

"Loki, will you go out with me tonight - As a date - It will be you, me, the flock, and their guests." I tried to throw in what I thought to be a charming smile. That's me, blunt and to the point.

"Wouldn't you rather have an actual date?"

I didn't know what to say, I felt choked up by my own words being thrown back at me.

**It seems rather innocent having Loki use the word **_**date, I **_**do not like it, but it had to be done.**

**Please review, I'm excited, two more chapters and this thing will be action packed and I'm hoping a few loops I will throw you all in will be exciting. I just want it to be unexpected.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Sorry for being so long. This chapter is short, but it is a game changer**

**Disclaimer: You get it by know**

****Not to Be Expected

Max's POV:

I took a deep breath before knocking on his door again. Yeah, I am pretty sure he heard what I said, but does it honestly matter? We are only friends and I refuse to look at this from a different angle. I maybe, possibly, should have gotten the message though when he shut the door in my face. Oh well, I never was one for taking a hint, or at least acknowledging one.

I waited by the door for five minutes before knocking again. Or more like before I started pounding on the door screaming at him to open up. Loki is the type to hold a grudge, and if I don't manage to talk this out now then he may not give me a chance.

He opened the door and the irritated look on his face almost sent me running in the opposite direction. I always preferred shying away from conflict if it is an option.

"Can I please come in?"

"No."

I am already irritated.

"Look, I understand if you are upset with me, but be rational."

"Rational?"

"Yes! You are going to make a big deal out of this! I can already tell!"

"How so?"

I gritted my teeth, Loki is normally so articulate, and hearing him talk like Fang is grating on my nerves.

"Does it matter?"

He cautiously opened the door. This is how I found myself spending Valentine's Day at Loki's house. For a while I worried about the flock, wondering if they knew where I was at. I slowly started to unwind and push the idea to a small corner of my mind as Loki and I talked in an amiable manner. At least until we went back to previous topics.

"So, am I really that bad that you could not present me as your partner at dinner to your family?"

I spluttered out the water I was drinking at his use of the word partner.

"No, but I consider you a friend, not anything of romantic interest."

Loki nodded in what seemed to be understanding. Before the room was covered with heavy silence I changed the topic.

"Not to be intruding, but would you like me to order pizza? I planned on having dinner with the family, but they didn't want me."

Loki grinned without answer and walked into the kitchen. Not knowing what to do, I trailed behind.

"I actually planned to try a hand with cooking, would you care to help?"

My mind waged an internal war on itself, indulge in this learning experience and risk burning down his house, or simply watch and avoid the incoming catastrophe.

"I'll pass. I have this terrible skill that makes me burn anything I touch."

Twenty minutes later and I was positive that Loki did not know what he was doing any more than I did. He had chicken in a pot with water and green beans laid out on a pan, cooking in the oven. When he took them out the chicken looked soggy and the green beans were charred.

"Pizza is always an option, you know?" I teased with a smile.

LINEBREAKLINEBREAKLINEBREAKL INEBREAKLINEBREAKLINEBREAKLI NEBREAKLINEBREAK

**Two months and some odd days later**

**Max's POV**

I sighed. Pizza at Loki's house is looking like a very good option tonight. Iggy has been good for nothing ever since he started dating that German model. He can barely spend five minutes without his lips attached to hers, and it only became worse when he found out she plans on going home this week. The constant affection those two show is sickening. I can barely stand seeing couples share quick kisses on the street. I literally hurled up my lunch the time I caught the two in a heated make out session. Carie's hands were pulling up his shirt and his hands were groping a rather inappropriate place. I had the right to lose my lunch.

Now, I am heading off to Loki's place. I don't care that he has no warning of my arrival. I rarely do. At least I thought that, until I saw a woman heading up to his front door and not much sooner entering his house. That was when I hesitated. She was a pretty blonde with bouncy hair, and she was wearing clothing that showed far too much skin in the cold weather. She returned no more than five minutes later; I wish I had not been outside the door when it opened.

"Max?" Loki's voice questioned as a sly smirk slid across his features. That was when I realized I had been glaring at the girl who was hastily trying to push past me.

"Hmm?"

"What purpose have you graced me with your presence for?" The sarcastic tone in his voice was not lost on me.

"I don't know. Who was that girl?" Any smile he had before was instantly tripled.

"Why does it matter?"

I almost growled my response at him, no matter how innocent it was.

"Just curious."

His smile dropped in a split second, and I had no clue why.

"You should come in."

He led me to the living room and the whole time I was silently panicking. Why did his house look so empty? He sat down on the love seat and I fell onto the space right next to him.

"That lady is the woman who is moving into this house."

"Ohh." I kept my response short to avoid showing any amount of sadness showing. The invincible Maximum Ride does not know the definition of sadness, yet alone does she show it.

"So, when are you moving then?" I do not believe there is a thing that could of shocked me more than his answer.

"Tonight."

"Where?"

"I honestly do not know Max, but I could not tell you either way."

That hit right below the belt.

"You didn't even plan on telling me you were leaving, did you?" Anger found its way into my voice, I was all too familiar with this situation. "Your bags are already packed and you were going to leave with nothing more than a useless piece of paper in your place!"

My eyes started to water as my anger increased, I could hardly stand to look at him with the unpleasant feeling built up in my stomach. He was becoming my closest friend and now he is leaving me like I am the scum on the bottom of his shoe?

"Well, I intended it to hold some pretty important information. Like, Max, do not come over to my house anymore, I believe you may scare away your new neighbor."

It felt like a slap in the face. So obviously the only reasonable response was to slap _him _in the face. I stood up to leave, to leave him before he could leave me, to leave the house, to leave the ground. I need to be in the air, right now. I was not able to do so because he grabbed my arm and yanked me back onto the couch.

"Do not touch me in such a way again or you will regret being born with two hands."

For the first time ever I felt genuine fear of Loki. Not just fear as in the look he gave me was scary, but the type of fear in which I was scared he was going to physically harm me. His face was no more than five inches from mine and a sneer graced his features. He had an arm blocking me from standing up and as I pushed on it with two hands the thing would not budge.

**Loki's POV:**

The insolent brat just slapped me! Before she knew what happened I had her trapped on the seat again. If she thinks she can be so disrespectful and just leave, then she has another thing coming. It was moments after I had her trapped that I realized how frightened she was. Her eyes all wide as they started to become watery and her lips slightly parted in shock, her hands were shaking as she pushed on my arm. I was surprised as I felt myself have to fight against the force she was emitting. As her struggle to break free became more frantic I realized she is not just frightened, but the first person I have truly had to consider as a friend is frightened of me.

I was confused on whether I should be angry with her, or myself. I moved my arm out of the way, and to my great disappointment she scrambled up as quickly as she could. Right before she slapped me and ran, actually ran, out the door. I am positive it is her I should be angry at.

**So there you have it, Loki is leaving, and on a really sour note too. There are not many, or any, happy ways to look at this story.**


	6. Chapter 5

**I hope everyone had a happy holiday. My computer was being a pain in the you know what today so I have been spending the past hour trying to figure out a way to type this up. Why does Google Drive have to be so painful to make work?**

**On a side note please don't kill me for taking so long to update. **

**Disclaimer: I own hardly any creative material relating to what I'm writing, and I am in no way shape or form profiting from this. Although, I may be profiting from gaining useful experience with writing, that's it.**

Some Action at Last

"Come on Max," Iggy said, a trace of begging in his tone.

"No," Max replied firmly.

Iggy's girlfriend, the German model he was quite fond of, had gone back home around the same time Loki disappeared. Which was a few months ago, sometime in April. Iggy was currently begging Max to take him to Germany. It had something to do with an odd formal event the woman was attending, Iggy was her plus one. That and the fact Iggy probably missed sucking on her face.

"This isn't fair. You won't let me go alone, and you won't come with me."

Max rolled her eyes. "First, you can't go alone because, not to be rude, you're blind."

"Ha, thanks for pointing it out Max, never would've noticed. I thought our house was just black."

"Bottom line, it's not safe. Second, I never said you had to take _me," _Max said with irritation covering each syllable.

"Well, I'm not taking Nudge because she'll want to butt in and give me pointers on _everything. _Hell, she'll probably even try dressing me. I don't want to take Gazzy because he'll distract me from my girlfriend, and I don't want to take Dylan because he's Dylan," Iggy said matter of factly.

"Isn't there a reason you wouldn't want to take me though?" Max asked.

"Sure," Iggy said while adding in a shrug, "but I figured you would leave me alone more than the others."

Max sighed.

"I'll make a deal with you," Iggy said. "You come with me or I go by myself."

"What kind of deal was that!"

"The kind that works for my benefit," Iggy said.

"Fine, I'll go, but I won't be happy about it," Max said with a frown. Iggy started to smile.

"Never said you had to be," he said before walking off.

* * *

Max got off the plane while feeling slightly dizzy. She reached out to rest her hand on Iggy's shoulder, to stabilize herself. Before realizing he was already gone. She had accidently grabbed the shoulder of an old lady.

"Sorry," Max said while wincing. "I thought you were a friend of mine."

The old lady looked nothing like Iggy.

"That's fine dear," she said, a look of bewilderment on her face before her expression broke into a small smile and she walked away.

"I'm going to kill you Iggy," Max growled under her breath. She looked around frantically before seeing a head of strawberry blonde hair stuck on an outrageously tall boy not too far ahead.

She made her way over, her walk not precisely straight, more of a stumbling. Iggy had his arms wrapped around a tall girl with honey blonde hair.

"What did you think you were doing! I could have lost you!" Max said in a frantic voice.

Iggy spun around, one arm still wrapped around the blonde, before replying. "Relax, I heard Carie call for me and now here you are." Iggy's relaxed smile didn't calm Max down.

"Do something like that again and I swear you w-" Max stopped mid-threat, as if just realizing the two weren't alone. "I'm sorry Carie," Max stuck out her hand towards the woman. "It's nice to see you again."

Carie ignored the gesture and proceeded to wrap her arms around Max in a tight hug.

"No, the pleasures all mine. I am so excited you came. I've missed all of you so much." Max smiled, after allowing herself to stop being tense. When Carie wasn't making out with Iggy, she was an enjoyable person to be around.

After greetings were done they picked up their luggage and Carie led them out of the airport. Max felt slightly nauseous again after seeing the car they would all have to ride in, but she passed it as being better than the tin can of death she was stuck in previously, known as to normal people as an airplane. Max sat in the backseat with her back resting on the door of the car and her knees brought up so she could put her head between them. She tried to ignore the sound of the couple in front of her whispering to each other and Carie's high pitched giggles that would occasionally break the almost silence.

As she sat by herself her mind drifted to Loki, as it often did when she wasn't preoccupied. Sometimes she thought out multiple scenarios of what could have happened the day he left, if she did things differently. In some of them she had convinced him to stay. In others she said hurtful words to make him feel the same sadness she had felt. A few of them she had punched him to show him _real _pain, slapping him just showed she was mad, if she actually wanted to hurt him things would have ended with a punch. On rare occasions her mind would travel off to thinking about what would have happened if she had kissed him, out of nowhere, would that have changed anything? The idea usually made Max slightly embarrassed as her frantic mind would search for other things to think about.

"Are you coming Max?" Carie was waiting with a smile and looking back at her from the front seat. Iggy obviously wasn't as patient, considering he had snuck his way to the side of the car with Max's door, which then he proceeded to open.

"Ow! Iggy! You idiot!" Max hissed as she rubbed her head. She had been resting up against the door, and when it was pulled open she fell towards it and onto the hard driveway. Iggy was currently laughing hysterically. His girlfriend was frowning at him.

"You keep acting immature and you won't be sleeping in my room." Max's chocolate brown-colored eyes widened at what Carie said, she didn't need to hear that. Iggy stopped laughing immediately.

The group walked towards the large country house in awkward silence. When the door was opened Max looked every which way to take in the sight.

"Wow," she said, "your home is beautiful." Max thought she probably looked out of place in the wonderful, old-fashioned home, decorated with all it's antiques. It seemed the place where ladies would sit around in dresses drinking tea and gossiping while men roamed around in suits talking of business.

"Oh, it isn't mine, it belongs to my parents. They allow me to come and go as I please. They currently are off in Spain on vacation."

"They won't mind us being here?" Iggy questioned.

"How can they mind if they will never know?" Carie questioned back. "They normally do not mind when I bring guests. Just no touching the paintings, my mother collects those, she seems to pay notice to every smudge. And stay away from the alcohol cabinet, my father does _not _share his liquor. Now let me lead you to the room you will be staying in Max."

Carie reached out and linked her arm under Max's before taking her up the grand wooden staircase in front of the entrance hall.

"What about my luggage," Max said, referring to her two suitcases she had left in the car.

"I will have Iggy grab those for you," Carie said, adding a quick wink.

"This will be your room," she went on, reaching for the wooden handle on a door that had elaborate carvings marking it. Max was slightly shocked to see the inside of the room. She would prefer just about any color rather than lavender, but it did work with the room. The furniture all seemed to be the same shade of a dark wood. Everything was elaborately carved, including the posts on the bed. The carpet was creamy colored and soft and Max thought that if there was any better place to be trapped, it might as well be in heaven.

A few days later and Max was questioning why she didn't want to come in the first place. The house was so big there was always a place to go for quiet. Max's personal favorite was the library, hidden by a secret set of winding stairs in the corner of the second floor. It was large and very comfortable with the fireplace blazing in the center of the wall at the end of the room.

"Max!" Carie yelled down from the first floor. The urgency in her voice scared Max into dropping the laptop she was currently using, which led to running down the dangerously steep spiral staircase, away from the library.

She ran down the main hall of the second floor of the house. Her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

"Max, come quick!"

She started to become more anxious as she stumbled down the final set of stairs, forgetting the last step and almost falling. She rounded the corner, to find Carie in the living room in an anxious, but safe, state.

"I forgot to tell you to bring a dress!" Carie said with an added groan for affect. "Now you have nothing acceptable to wear to the gala."

Max didn't know what to say.

"Never mind that, do you remember me telling you about how I'm bringing you with Iggy and I? I hope I told you to begin with. We should go fetch a dress from my closet and start getting ready early. Iggy went upstairs to put on one of my brother's old suits."

Max trailed after the woman in a state of disbelief, how does a person just forget telling another that? _'Just stealing you for a party you want nothing to do with tonight, no biggie.'_ Carie pulled open the door to her room and Max was not the slightest bit surprised by the fact it was even more grand than the one she was currently staying in. Carie opened her closet, which was larger than Max's room back at her home. _'Nudge would die just for the chance to see this,' _Max thought.

"Try this on," Carie said throwing out a white dress. "You might want this too." Carrie threw back a white faux-leather jacket. "I know about the, yeah, you know?" Carrie finished off awkwardly. She straightened up her expression and her light green eyes made eye contact with Max's before finishing. "The wings."

"Thank-you," Max said before heading towards the bathroom to put the dress on. It was rather pretty, and if Max ever wanted to pass off as an angel she could take off the jacket and snap out her wings, and no one would doubt her. The dress was only tight at the top, but it fell freely once it hit her waist. The low neckline bothered her slightly, but she found that compared to what Nudge had on occasion forced her into, this dress was rather modest.

"Well you look lovely," Carie said with a smile on her face. "It covers them right?"

"I think, would you mind checking real quick, for poking feathers and what not."

Carie nodded her head before motioning for Max to turn around. "All looks good to me."

"Thanks."

"Your welcome. Would you mind helping me pick a dress for myself?"

"Uh," Max started, "That may not be a good idea. In case Nudge hasn't told you already, my fashion sense on a scale of one to ten isn't even worthy of being scored."

"Oh," Carie said before giggling, "I can manage on my own then. Stay here though, I still have to work on you."

Max was discouraged by this, clean was about as good as it came with her.

Twenty minutes and six dresses later and Carie had finally settled for a gold dress with practically no back.

"I'll finish up with you first so you are not stuck here the rest of the day."

Max didn't know whether to be upset at the prospect of being done up or happy that it sounded like the process would be swift. She settled with the former option. Her eyebrows were plucked at until they burned and her face was rubbed down with products Max had never seen before. She felt like her whole face was on fire when Carie was done rubbing some lotion into her skin.

"That hurts," Max complained.

"It should not hurt, it's only a toner."

Max rose one eyebrow, "but it burns," she stated.

"Oh no!" Carie exclaimed. "Are you allergic to anything?"

"Maybe," Max said, not knowing herself.

"Your face seems to be breaking out in a rash. Here," Carie handed her another product. "Rub this into your face and wait until the burning stops before you take it off. You can lie down in my bed."

Max waited and waited until the burning faded to an itch. When she washed off the product her entire face still had a slightly pink tint to it and her skin was dry. The bright side was that because of the surprise allergic reaction Carie had not bothered to do her makeup.

"Let me do your hair real quick. Iggy is almost ready to leave, he's looking for something in his bags, but we're running a bit behind schedule. I have a pair of shoes waiting for you by the door."

Max waited with all the patience she had inside her while Carie curled her hair. When she was done Carie looked so high strung Max didn't want to talk in fear that it would cause the woman to snap.

"Let's go to the car, now."

Max ran down the stairs and put on her shoes, happy to find out they had no heels. When she saw Iggy she had to bite her tongue to hold in a laugh. Iggy and suits didn't seem to go together.

"Nice bow tie," she said with a slightly teasing tone to her voice.

"What? Bow ties are cool," Iggy said while adjusting the mentioned bowtie with a big grin on his face.

Max rolled her eyes, realizing that the effort was wasted on Iggy.

The car trip to the gala was uneventful. This time through Max paid attention to the passing scenery, paying notice to the fact the country was slowly turning into city.

Eventually they pulled up to a tall white building with spirally pillars and gigantic windows. Max was almost shocked to see an actual red carpet, but she wasn't entirely surprised, it seemed to fit in with the setting. While Carie talked to the valet attendant Max started to walk forward, not noticing that her dress was getting wet from dragging on the moist sidewalk. The reflections from the rainwater seemed to belong where they were.

The couple caught up to Max before walking to the entrance. Iggy had his arm wrapped around Carie's waist and he brought the other one up to wrest behind Max's shoulder.

"Thanks for coming, both of you. Max, you can do what you want while we are here. Stay with us or roam around. Just try not to create any scenes like you tend to do," Carie said.

"You're talking to the wrong person. Tell that to Iggy," Max said.

"Hey!" Iggy took his arm off of Max's shoulder. "I can be normal, I just chose not to be."

His girlfriend giggled.

"Ugh, don't laugh, haven't you heard that encourages them."

"Isn't that with children?" Iggy questioned.

Max nodded with a cheeky grin on her face. Not that Iggy could see it, she didn't want to get any reactions from him at the moment anyways.

"And here we are," Carie said as they walked through the doors. Everyone inside was dressed in fine suits and extravagant dresses. Max's jacket looked quite out of place. The ceiling made Max feel less crowded, it seemed to stretch upwards enough to make up for the fact people were taking up most of the room on the ground. A few violins were playing somewhere, their music drifting over the murmur of the crowd. Although the place was much too uptight for the tastes of Max, it wasn't completely horrid. Some people were talking in English while a few seemed to chat in German.

Max spent some time with the couple before wanting to roam free. An hour into the event and she was bored out of her mind. Max wanted excitement. Or at least she did until she got it. She heard a large crack and people gasping before all hell broke loose. There was Loki, and Max couldn't have been more shocked if she had tried to be. She was absolutely frozen while everyone else was running in panic. He had some device held above a man's face, and the man was twitching violently. Loki's expression was so calm, it was bone chilling. This guy may look like Loki, Max determined, but he's not the same person. When he was done with the device he walked towards the door. Max followed quietly, not daring to make a noise. Loki's stride was smooth and slow. He seemed to glow for a second before his black suit turned into the ridiculous costume she saw him wear when they first met. She almost cringed at the sight of the terrible gold helmet. If Nudge thought Max had a bad sense of fashion, what would she say at the image of this Loki?

Loki continued his stride with a more vicious expression crossing his face, a cop car was coming towards him and he paid little notice to it besides a blast that came from his scepter weapon. The blue energy that came from it caused the police car to flip forward and skid a bit. Max had a near death experience when the car almost crushed her beneath it. She had to jump back towards the curb of the road. As Loki kept moving forward Max stayed where she was, using her raptor vision to search for Iggy and Carie.

She started hyperventilating when she saw multiple Lokis appear, this definitely wasn't him. _It's only someone who looks like him, _Max reasoned with herself.

"Kneel before me," but that definitely sounded like him. The people were panicking as the multiple Loki's herded them into a circle. The Lokis hit their scepters to the ground and the weapons glowed a bright blue.

"I said KNEEL," the Loki wannabe screamed to the people before him. Max was having a silent panic attack as she stood stationary by the upside down cop car. As everyone kneeled she saw a tall man hesitate before a woman with blonde hair pulled him down. Iggy and Carie were there.

"Is not this," the fake Loki started, "simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity. That you crave subjugation." Max's eyes lit up with a fire at these words. These words... The School sent this fake Loki, somehow they knew, Max thought desperately. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity, you were made to be ruled." No, Max thought, I'm a person, it was their fault for making me in the first place. Their fault for thinking they had more control, more power than they actually did. The fake Loki spoke it in such a way Max almost believed it to be true, that was why she was created, to be used as an object, she would spend the rest of her life fighting that truth. "In the end you will always kneel." He was wrong. Max started to walk forward, ready to take him by surprise.

"Not to men like you," an old man stood up and Max couldn't help but to feel glad that someone had rebelled against the crazy Loki's musings.

"Let him be an example," Max panicked as Loki raised his horrid scepter while saying this. She started to run forward, but Loki had already made the shot. A man decked in red, white, and blue did the hero work for her. The blue energy rebounded and hit Loki, knocking him to the ground.

"You know," the man who looked like a human version of the American flag said, "the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else we ended up disagreeing."

Loki started to rise. Max took this as her chance to attack, realizing now was a terrible time to be wearing a dress.

"Last time for me, around two decades ago, it was a woman," Max said at the new comer before sending a kick to Loki's back, hoping at the same time that she wasn't showing everyone her undergarments. The crazy Loki fell to the ground from the pure force of the kick. Max and the flock were stronger than a grown man as half-starved children, now their strength was (as of what they had experienced) unmatched. Sometimes having altered DNA was a blessing.

American flag guy looked up at Max in surprise, before she flashed him her rather cheeky grin.

As Loki starts to rise again a voice comes from an aircraft above them. "Loki drop the weapon and stand down." This is when everything was truly shot to hell.

Loki immediately jabbed his scepter forward in an attempt to hit the red, white, and blue man. The man dodged and Max shot forward to come face to face with Loki. When they made eye contact Max finally was settled. He may be absolutely mad, but this is him. She shot her fist forward and it nicely collided with his jaw as she imagined it would multiple times since the day he left, what she had not been expecting was for her knuckles to crack in a loud breaking sound on impact. Or for him to swing a giant scepter over the top of her head afterwards. When the thing hit her Max swore before dodging the scepter again as it aimed at her side, her way of dodging being falling to the ground since she couldn't do much with the pain in her head that caused her vision to go fuzzy. Loki aimed his scepter down at Max and she knew she was doomed.

"Didn't someone teach you not to hit ladies?" the American flag man said before grabbing the scepter, pulling it towards him, and using the extra momentum to collide his fists soundly into Loki's side.

Loki paid the rest of his attention to the man and Max stayed on the ground, holding her head in an attempt to keep it from falling off, or at least that's why she told herself she was holding her head. Surely with all the pain it would just roll off if she let go.

She was barely conscious when she heard something hit the ground with a loud crunching sound. She peeked from beneath her arms and saw what looked like a robot standing on broken bricks that made up the street.

"I hope you plan on fixing that," she said before letting the fuzziness in her vision and ears take over.

**I'm sorry for taking so long to update, but no worries, I don't plan on abandoning this story. I've just been easily distracted.**


	7. Mini Chapter

**Here's your update. I'm so so so sorry. I've had track lately and homework and an online class on top of everything…but here's an update! Sorry if my writing is a little rusty.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the computer I'm typing from.**

**Max POV:**

When Max's eyes started to open the first thing she realized is that everything hurt. Her vision was blurry, hearing fuzzy, and her head was sure to fall off at any moment. The first sound she let out of her mouth was a pained groan.

"Damn it. What the hell was that stick made out of?"

"The scepter should not be your concern right now," said a formal sounding voice from next to Max "at the very least you should be suffering from a contusion from the force of that blow. In fact, that hit would have left some dead. Yet here you are hardly suffering from a minor concussion. Now who are you?"

When Max looked in front of her and her vision cleared out all she could make out was a head of red hair. For Max that was never a good first impression.

"I should be asking the same thing, are you some kind of doctor or something? And I would hardly say a mild concussion, this hurts like hell. Either way, doesn't matter, I need to find my friend."

"It's going to be hard to find anyone around here, police cleared out the area already. Now, I have to ask you some basic questions about what you saw tonight. If you care to start off simple what is your name?"

"Try me," was all that Max said.

"What?"

"You said I wouldn't be able to find my friend, try me."

"Look, I'm not here to play games. We have reasons to believe that you could be in league with something dangerous, or someone. Your name is Maximum Ride, you live in New York with a group of friends and after that there's nothing. No history, you currently have a fake social security number, no _place of birth_ ten or so years back there was a credit card made under your name, unlimited credit, never paid for. While the people I work with normally wouldn't care so much about such a small case we aren't usually dismissive of anyone capable of dropping off our radar for twenty years."

**So this is more a preview for the next chapter, which I will be writing this weekend (or Monday). I hope you all look forward to it.**


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